Television news anchor, journalist and author Wolf Blitzer and award-winning director/producer Barbara Kopple will be the Lifetime Achievement honorees at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ (NATAS) 44th Annual News & Documentary Emmy® Awards. Blitzer will be honored for his legendary career in news and Kopple for her work on numerous film and television documentaries. Blitzer will receive his honor at the News ceremony on Wednesday, September 27, and Kopple’s will be presented at the Documentary ceremony on Thursday, September 28. Both ceremonies will take place at the Palladium Times Square in New York City.
Adam Sharp, president and CEO, NATAS, said, “We are thrilled to recognize two icons with Lifetime Achievement Emmy Awards. Wolf Blitzer and Barbara Kopple each continue to enjoy successful careers and have made a deep impact in the world of television journalism and documentaries. Through their achievements, they have left indelible marks of distinction on the industry.”
Blitzer said, “I am truly honored to receive this esteemed award from the Academy. When Ted Turner hired me, he told me, ‘Wolf, at CNN, the news comes first’ and that has been my guiding light these 33 years and continues to be my advice to young journalists today. I consider myself incredibly fortunate that I still get up every morning and look forward to going to work and reporting the news with some of the smartest people I know. This award is a testament to the hard work and dedication of so many talented journalists whom I have worked with, been mentored by, and learned from during my career.”
Kopple said, “I am deeply moved and honored to receive this recognition. What it means to me is that the many people whose lives I was lucky enough to film will not be forgotten. They are a treasure to us all. There will be more to come.”
Blitzer is a 33-year veteran of CNN, is the anchor of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, which just celebrated 18 years on the air. The program airs on weekdays and provides viewers with in-depth reports about the political, international, and breaking news stories of the day. Among the numerous honors he has received for his reporting is the American News Women’s Club Excellence in Journalism Award in 2019. In March 2014, the National Press Foundation awarded him the Sol Taishoff Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism. In 2013, he was recognized as the eighth recipient of the Urbino Press Award from the Italian Embassy for his excellence in journalism. In 2011, Blitzer received the distinguished Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award from The Radio & Television Digital News Foundation, and The Panetta Institute for Public Policy’s Jefferson-Lincoln Award. Blitzer interviewed some of history’s most notable figures, including U.S. Presidents’ Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and Gerald Ford. He has also interviewed many foreign leaders–the Dalai Lama, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and former South African President Nelson Mandela.
Kopple is a two-time Academy Award winner and holds the distinction of being the only woman to have won twice in the Oscars’ Best Documentary category. She is also a seven-time Emmy nominated filmmaker. A director and producer of documentaries, narrative films, and commercials, she most recently completed the documentary “Gumbo Coalition,” which follows visionary Civil Rights leaders Marc Morial and Janet Murguia. Kopple has also directed and produced upwards of 50 films throughout her career, including “Desert One” about the daring U.S. Special Ops mission during the Iranian hostage crisis; “New Homeland,” documenting a group of refugee children from Syria and Iraq who experience a summer camp in the Canadian wilderness; “A Murder In Mansfield,” “This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous,” “Miss Sharon Jones!,” “Hot Type: 150 Years of The Nation,” “Running from Crazy,” “Woodstock: Now and Then,” “Wild Man Blues, “Shut Up and Sing,” “A Conversation with Gregory Peck,” as well as her two Academy Award winning films, “Harlan County USA” and “American Dream.” In 1991, “Harlan County USA” was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress and designated an American Film Classic. (Kopple is repped in the commercialmaking/branded content space by production house Institute.)
The 44th Annual News & Documentary Emmy® Awards honor programming content from more than 2,300 submissions that originally premiered in calendar-year 2022, judged by a pool of over 1,000 peer professionals from across the television and streaming/digital media news and documentary industry.
